Callers with 10 or More Arrests Share Their Stories

CLAY: I asked the question… I didn’t think the answer was gonna be yes. I asked the question, do we have any listeners, Buck, who have been arrested 10 or more times? I thought the answer would be no.

BUCK: We got a lot of folks. We got a lot of folks who listen to the show, Clay. When you’re dealing in the millions. If we ask somebody — if we put the call out there — hey, has anyone in this audience been abducted by aliens, for real, there’s a couple of people would probably say they’ve been abducted by aliens. I’m just saying.

CLAY: So credit to these guys for calling in saying they’ve been arrested 10 or more times. I’m actually curious how it happened, what their background is. Tony from Florida, 10 or more times. When did these start, and when is the most recent time that you have been arrested and what in the world were you arrested for?

CALLER: Hi, Clay and Buck. Yeah, this is Tony, and I’m in Tampa, and I don’t get arrested anymore, but I’ve been arrested over 20 times.

BUCK: Wow.

CLAY: When did this happen? Like, how did this happen? What were you doing?

CALLER: Well, back in the seventies and eighties my family wasn’t all together, and I took off as a 15-year-old and hit the street. It became a mind-set that I thought as long as nobody knew about it, I could get away with it. Eventually, it caught up to me and, you know, I paid my dues. But the problem is you got some people that commit the crimes such as personal crimes, like murder and battery and rape and all that stuff; they don’t care. They really don’t care. Me, I was more of a property criminal, and I got arrested and I had copped out to it and I went and did my time. The last time that I was arrested —

BUCK: Tony, can I ask you — I’m so curious, how — what was the longest stretch you did?

CALLER: Four years on a 12-year sentence, and then I violated it and went back and did two more.

BUCK: Wow. What was prison like?

CALLER: I’ve been to Florida State Penitentiary five times.

CLAY: How long have you been out now?

CALLER: For almost 10 years.

(crosstalking)

BUCK: Yeah, I have a million questions.

CLAY: What was the worst thing about prison, in your mind?

CALLER: The worst thing is not being able to do what you want like going to your refrigerator and getting some ice cream, not having the things you want, and then privacy. You have no privacy whatsoever. And then, you know, guards are telling you what to do, and I didn’t like that. But I knew that that was my punishment, and I had to walk through it, and I did it day by day the same as like AA, one day at a time.

BUCK: Tony, what turned you around? ‘Cause obviously you said, you know, you’re never going back ’cause you’re never breaking the law again — and God bless and that’s what we like to hear but what was the turning point for you? When did you realize you were gonna stay on the right side of the law always going forward?

CALLER: Well, I wanted to be a free man, and I wanted have a job and get a paycheck and have a house and, you know, being able to get the things I want. I don’t want to be subjected to that punishment, you know? I fear going through being arrested and going to court and going through the system. I don’t want that no more. I got a little company on my own right now, and I’m doing the best I can.

And it’s still, it’s one day at a time, and I carry the stigma with me. I feel like I’m a constitutionalist trapped with the stigma of being an ex-con, and they tell me I can’t vote, but I want to file a lawsuit against it because I believe that’s something that’s a right that’s given by the Constitution and not the politicians.

CLAY: Thank you for the call, Tony. I’m not an expert, but I know that there are processes by which felons can get their rights restored.

BUCK: Yeah, restored.

CLAY: So I would encourage you to look that up. I think you can probably Google it if you are committed to being on the straight-and-narrow going forward. We thank you for listening. By the way, also Russ in Massachusetts says he has been arrested —

BUCK: Over 10 times. Russ, how many times? We just heard over 20. How many times?

CALLER: Well, mine’s actually only 10.

BUCK: Okay.

CLAY: Only 10.

CALLER: So —

CLAY: How’d it happen?

CALLER: How did it happen? Well, originally I had gotten into a car accident and gotten numerous rechargeable events and ended up losing my license. Shortly thereafter my mother had gotten into a car accident and ended up in the nursing home and being the eldest child of the family, I was the only one able to drive. So needless to say, I kept getting… The local police ended up recognizing my car numerous times running errands and this and that for my family, I got pulled over and arrested 10 times for driving without a license.

CLAY: You got arrested 10 times for driving without a license?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

CLAY: So they would put you in cuffs and take you into the jail 10 different times?

CALLER: Into the police department. I’d end up going up in front of a judge and pleading out and telling them my case. Liberal Massachusetts, thankfully, was lenient on me, up until about the tenth time where they wanted me to serve eight months for being a habitual offender.

CLAY: And you were primarily just living your life. That’s one of the challenges, obviously, of getting your license revoked is it’s a punishment that doesn’t allow… It’s almost like a debtor’s prison back in the day, you almost have to be able to drive a car to be able to do virtually anything in America —

CLAY: Right.

CLAY: — nd so that is an incredibly Draconian punishment because it takes away much of your life. That actually makes more sense.

CALLER: At that point in time, this was between the ages of 18 and 20. And like I said my mother had gotten into a car accident, was in the hospital for a while and then in the rehabilitation center, couldn’t drive. I had a younger sister who was three years younger than I was who wasn’t old enough to drive at the time. So the bills needed to get paid and shopping needed to get done.

BUCK: Well, Russ, we appreciate you sharing your perspective on what it’s like to go through the system, and we wish you and yours all the best, and obviously gonna stay on the straight and narrow going forward. See, Clay, you never know, man.

CLAY: Yeah, I didn’t think there was anybody listening over 10 times; we got two immediate callers. There you go.